第47回全国高等学校生徒英作文コンテスト(全英連主催）（文部科学省・日本英語検定協会後援)（旺文社・ジャパンタイムズ協賛）
（週刊ＳＴ・2008年12月12日号にて発表）
（優秀賞）How I Motivate Myself
静岡県立静岡高等学校
420-8608 静岡県静岡市葵区長谷町６６
１年・長田頼河・１５歳・男
Osada Raiga
Shizuoka-kenritsu Shizuoka High School
Now I have three strong ways for motivating myself. Thanks to them, I’m not depressed and lead a positive life everyday.
I’ve experienced hard times at different times in my life. Best friends
at kindergarten and at elementary school have gone away to distant schools.
I was sometimes bullied and betrayed by classmates and elders. Every time
I was very depressed, my best friends and my family supported me. Without
them, I might have become a social drop-out.
I suffered a big shock at high school, too. We had to take part in a
mountaineering race during a PE lesson. I was the slowest runner because
of asthma and my weight, 90 kg. I could not come back to school by the
time the lesson ended. Maybe I was the slowest of the whole grade. However
fast I wanted to run, I couldn’t because of my fear of asthma. This mortifying
feeling was the worst experience that I had ever had. When I thought of
the next day’s race, I didn’t want to go to school.
Because this feeling could not disappear, I played the piano for a long
time. I could play only the introduction of famous piano pieces because
I learned how to play the piano for only a few years in my early childhood.
But, while I was playing them, Beethoven, Chopin and Mozart encouraged
me and said to me, “Don’t mind, Intro Prince!” So my resentment was diminished.
A small old electric piano became my first motivational tool.
After playing the piano, I went out with a diabolo, a juggling tool,
that my best friend at junior high school had taught me. I gradually felt
refreshed while throwing out the diabolo many times toward the sky. The
happy smile of my best friend who went to a different high school crossed
my mind. The sun-colored diabolo became my second motivational tool.
But, when my bedtime came, I endeavored to solve math problems which
I loved very much because I was again a little depressed thinking about
the next day. I thought only about how to solve them without bothering
about other things. And, after I had solved the problems one after another,
I felt so tired that I slept soundly until the next morning. Solving math
problems was my third motivational tool.
The next morning I got up with very fresh feelings. Everyone has something
that he or she can’t do. I came to think positively that I tried to achieve
something that I could do. When I joined the race with such a thought,
I could see the beautiful scenery that I had always missed and I started
to enjoy hard exercise in my own way.
After such an experience, when I seem to lose my motivation, I regain
it thanks to these three ways, the piano, the diabolo and solving math
problems. (478語)
講評〜内容が具体的でありテーマにきっちり即して書いてある。
Very Good! Esssay clearly organized with concrete ideas and details. Persuasive!
応募総数〜全国１７１校・１５８５７編〜その内から学校からの選抜応募数２０９１編